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March 22, 1955 J R. ETLAR 2,704,574

DOOR SEAL Filed July 14, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l Y 37 Y LNI) L\ 2-INVENTOR JOHN R. ETLAR T .1 .E

BY W ATTORNEY March 22, 1955 Flled July 14, 1954 INVENTOR JOHN R.ETL/:R-

BY @ff/,M ATTORNEY UnitedStates Patent O DOOR SEAL John R. Etlar,Baltimre,vMd.

Application July 14, 1954, Serial No. 443,311

9 Claims. (Cl. 160-127) This invention relates to building constructionand more particularly to a structure to be applied to a buildingadjacent a door opening and adapted to cooperate with the body of atruck or other similar vehicle disposed adjacent the building fordischarging or receiving merchandise through the door opening.

As is well known, warehouses and the like which are provided withrelatively large door openings for accommodating trucks or othervehicles during the loading or discharging of merchandise therefrom, areparticularly difficult to keep well heated in view of the leakage of airaround the door opening, since the same must be open when the truck isin loading or discharging position, and heretofore no means has beenprovided for effectively sealing this opening. As a result suchwarehouses or buildings during the winter months are frequentlysubjected to an interior temperature considerably below that which is atall comfortable for the persons working therein. Consequently any meanswhich will permit an exclusion of the elements and cold air from theoutside, thus permitting reasonably comfortable temperatures within thebuilding or warehouse, is obviously a step forward in the art.

It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a structure forsealing the opening around the door of a building such as a warehouse,which structure cooperates with the body of a truck or other vehicle inorder to seal such opening.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a structure forcooperating with a truck or other vehicle to seal the opening around adoor in a warehouse or other building, which structure may beconveniently applied to the building or removed at will depending uponwhether it is necessary to seal such opening against the entrance of airfrom the outside.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a structurefor attachment to the wall of a building or warehouse adjacent a dooropening therein, which structure is adapted to cooperate with the bodyof a truck or other vehicle to prevent entry of outside air to thebuilding, such structure being compressible to adapt the same to variouscontours of truck or vehicle bodies, and likewise providing means forfacilitating the renewal of portions thereof which are subjected togreatest wear.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a structure forattachment to the wall of a building or warehouse adjacent a dooropening therein, which structure is designed to cooperate with the bodyof a truck to prohibit the entrance of air from the outside, and inwhich the sealing structure may be installed without materialmodification of the building structure.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a structure to beattached to the wall of a building or warehouse adjacent a door openingtherein to cooperate with a truck body in sealing against the entranceof air from without, which structure may be conveniently andeconomically manufactured from readily available materials withoutrequiring the use of highly skilled labor, thus maintaining the cost ofmanufacture at a minimum.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent fromthe following description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings wherein:

Fig. l is a view in perspective showing the door sealing structure ofthis invention applied to a building wall which is shown in dottedoutline, and also the manner 2,704,574 Patented Mar. 22, 1955 ICC inwhich the structure cooperates with a truck body which is also shown indotted outline;

Fig. 2, an elevational view of the door sealing structure constructed inaccordance with this invention;

Fig. 3, a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4, a sectional view similar to Fig. 3 but showing a modied form ofthe invention; and

Fig. 5, a fragmentary view in perspective showing a canopy utilized toprevent entry of rain or snow at the upper portion of the door sealingstructure.

With continued reference to the drawing there is shown in Fig. 1 thewall of a building 10 which may be provided with a door opening 11, andaround this opening there is installed the door sealing structure 12 ofthis invention. The structure 12 is designed to cooperate with the rearedge of a truck body 13 in order to seal the opening 11 and prevententry of air from the exterior of the building in a manner to be laterdescribed.

As best shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the door seal 12 of this invention isconstructed in three sections, 14, 15 and 16, which may be installedaround three sides of the door opening 11 and each of these sections isidentical except for length and the manner of finishing the endsthereof.

The section 14 may be constructed as shown in Fig. 3, in which aplurality of layers 17 of foam rubber or other suitable compressiblematerial are encased in a fabric tube or casing 13, which may be securedaround the foam rubber llers 17 in any desired manner. The casing 18 isprovided at opposite sides thereof with tabs 19 and 20 which may besecured to the casing 18 by stitching or in any other suitable manner,and these tabs serve to provide a securing means for attaching a wearcasing 21 which may be of the same fabric as the casing 18 or may be ofother suitable abrasion-resistant fabric. The wear casing 21 may besecured to the tabs 20 by lacing, not shown, or by any other suitablemeans and obviously as the wear casing 21 becomes worn or otherwisedamaged, the same may be conveniently replaced by releasing theattaching means and securing a new casing in place to the tabs 19 and20.

The section 14 is likewise provided with a laterally extending securingstrip 22 which may be attached to the casing 18 by stitching 23 or othersuitable means, and the strip 22 is provided with a plurality ofgrommets 24 which serve to provide a convenient means for facilitatingsecuring of the section 14 to the wall 10 of the building.

As shown in Fig. 2 the section 14 is provided at the upper end thereofwith a beveled end wall 25 which is designed to cooperate with a beveledend wall on the end of section 15, and likewise cooperating beveled endwalls on the opposite end of section 15 and the upper end of section 16permit installation of the three sections 14, 1S and 16 around the threesides of the door opening 11. The sections 15 and 16 are constructed inexactly the same manner as section 14 described above, and section 15will be provided with an attaching strip 27 having grommets 28 therein,and likewise section 16 will be provided with an attaching strip 29having grommets 30 therein.

As shown in Fig. 1, the sections 14, 15 and 16 may be attached to thewall 10 of the building by a llexible member 31 threaded through thegrommets 24, 28 and 30, and engaging hooks or other suitable fasteningmeans 32 extending from the wall 10 of the building. It will thus beseen that the sections 14, 15 and 16 may be conveniently installed onthe wall of the building or removed therefrom and obviously noalteration of the building wall is required except the installation ofthe fastening means 32.

With the sections 14, 15 and 16 installed on the wall 10 of the buildingas shown in Fig. l, it is only necessary for a truck to back up to thedoor opening 11 until the rear edges of the truck body 13 contact theouter sides of the sections 14, 15 and 16 and compress the foam rubberfillers 17 which will, of course, accommodate the sections toirregularities in the edges of the truck body 13 and will thus provide asubstantially airtlght seal around the door opening 11. The structurewill automatically operate to provide such a sealing function, andobviously no manual manipulations are required in order to accomplishthis result.

Since there may be leakage of rain or snow around the upper section 15between the rear portion of the same and the wall of the building, asshown in Fig. 5 there may be provided a canopy 33 which may take theform of a sheet of fabric 34 of substantially the same length as thesection 15, which sheet of fabric may be provided with an attachingstrip 35 having suitable fastening means 36 which permit convenientattachment of the same to the wall 10 of the building. The canopy 33extends downwardly and over the outer side of the section and may besecured in place at the ends thereof by a flexible member 37 which mayalso be secured to the fastening means 32 projecting from the wall 10 ofthe building. The canopy 33 thus provides an efllcient means forpreventing leakage of rain or snow between the section 15 and the wallof the building, since the canopy 33 is in the nature of an inclinedroof section which will act to shed such rain and snow.

A slightly modified form of the invention is shown in Fig. 4, in which asection 38 may include the sarne filler pieces or blocks 39 of foamrubber or other suitable material enclosed in a fabric casing 40 in thesame manner as described above in connection with the construction ofsection 14. Likewise there will be provided securing tabs 41 and 42 forattaching a wear casing 43 in the same manner as described in connectionwith section 14.

The casing 39 of section 38 may be provided with loops 44 and 45 offabric material which may be secured to the casing 40 by stitching 46and 47 or other suitable means, and these loops 44 and 45 may extendthroughout the entire length of the section 38 or may be secured theretoat spaced intervals. The loops 44 and 45 serve to receive pipes or rods,not shown, which in turn would be secured to the wall of the building bysuitable pipe clamps and which structure would serve to conveniently andremovably secure the section 38 to the wall of the building. This wouldprovide a more rigid attaching structure than that provided by thelacing shown in Fig. 1, and might in some instances be more desirable.

It will be seen that by the above described invention there has beenprovided a relatively simple yet highly efllcient door seal structurewhich will permit loading or unloading of a truck parked adjacent thedoor opening of a warehouse or other building, and which at the sametime will prevent entry of air or rain and snow to the interior of thebuilding, but without in any way requiring substantial modification oralteration of the building. Furthermore, the structure is one whichaccommodates itself automatially to varying contours of the rear edge ofthe truck body and no manual operations are required to effect thesealing operation other than the ordinary parking of the truck inalignment with the door opening. The structure may be easily applied orremoved from the building, and consequently it need only be utilizedduring the winter months or during inclement weather.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes maybe made in the invention Without departing from the spirit and scopethereof, and therefore the invention is not limited by that which isshown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only asindicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A sealing structure for cooperating with the rear edge of a truckbody to seal around a door opening in a building, such structurecomprising a plurality of elongated sections removably secured to thewall of the building around the door opening, each section comprising anelongated tubular fabric casing filled with slabs of foam rubber, afabric wear casing removably secured to said tubular casing andextending around a portion of the outer surface thereof, an attachingstrip secured to said tubular casing and extending laterally therefromand grommets in said strip for receiving a flexible element forattaching the section to the wall of the building.

2. A sealing structure as defined in claim l in which a canopy isprovided over the upper section extending S0 across the upper side ofthe door opening, said canopy comprising a strip of fabric materialdetachably secured to the wall of the building and extending outwardlyand downwardly over the outer edge of the upper sealing section andsecured to the wall of the building by a flexible element.

3. A sealing structure for cooperating with the rear edge of a truckbody to seal around a door opening in a building, said structurecomprising a plurality of elongated sections removably secured to thewall of the building around the door opening, each section comprising anelongated tubular fabric casing filled with foam rubber, a fabric Wearcasing removably secured to said tubular casing and extending around aportion of the outer surface thereof, an attaching strip secured to saidtubular casing and extending laterally therefrom and grommets in saidstrip for receiving a flexible element for attaching the section to thewall of the building.

4. A sealing structure for cooperating with the rear edge of a truckbody to seal around a door opening in a building, said structurecomprising a plurality of elongated sections removably secured to thewall of the building around the door opening, each section comprising anelongated tubular fabric casing filled with yieldable material, a fabricwear casing removably secured to said tubular casing and extendingaround a portion of the outer surface thereof, an attaching stripsecured to said tubular casing and extending laterally therefrom andgrommets in said strip for receiving a flexible element for attachingthe section to the wall of the building.

5. A sealing structure for cooperating with the rear edge of a truckbody to seal around a door opening in a building, said structurecomprising a plurality of elongated sections removably secured to thewall of the building around the door opening, each section comprising anelongated tubular flexible casing filled with yieldable material, aflexible wear casing removably secured to said tubular casing andextending around a portion of the outer surface thereof, an attachingstrip secured to said tubular casing and extending laterally therefromand grommets in said strip for receiving a flexible element forattaching the section to the wall of the building.

6. A sealing structure for cooperating with the rear edge of a truckbody to seal around a door opening in a building, said structurecomprising a plurality of elongated sections removably secured to thewall of the building around the door opening, each section comprising anelongated tubular flexible casing filled with yieldable material, aflexible wear casing removably secured to said tubular casing andextending around a portion of the outer surface thereof, an attachingstrip secured to said tubular casing and extending laterally therefromand means on said strip for detachably securing the section to the wallof the building.

7. A sealing structure for cooperating with the rear edge of a truckbody to seal around a door opening in a building, said structurecomprising a plurality of elongated sections removably secured to thewall of the building around the door opening, each section comprising anelongated tubular flexible casing filled with yieldable material, aflexible wear casing removably secured to said tubular casing andextending around a portion of the outer surface thereof and means onsaid tubular casing for detachably securing the same to the wall of thebuilding.

8. A sealing structure as defined in claim 7 in which the means fordetachably securing the casing to the wall of the building comprisesvertically spaced loops on said tubular casing for receiving anelongated member secured to the wall of the building thereby securingsaid tubular casing to the wall of the building.

9. A sealing structure as defined in claim 8 in which the means fordetachably securing the tubular casing to the wall of the buildingcomprises members on said tubular casing for receiving an elongatedmember secured to the wall of the building.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS733,071 McGriff July 7, 1903

